Italian police announced the seizure of about 14 tons of narcotic amphetamine tablets coming from Syria, and described it as the largest operation of its kind in the world. While the authorities accused ISIS, activists said that the Bashar al-Assad regime was responsible.
On Wednesday, investigators said they seized 3 container ships docked in the southern Italian port of Salerno, and found 84 million tablets of Captagon - an amphetamine - inside large machines and paper rolls intended for industrial use. The value of the shipment is estimated at about one billion dollars.
The Italian police said in a statement that the captagon production was initially focused in Lebanon, and that the Islamic State was selling it to finance its activities.
Investigators expected that the manufacture of such drugs had been damaged in Europe due to the Corona epidemic, and smugglers had to bring them from Syria. Reuters quoted an Italian officer as saying that local Kamura gangs may have been involved in this work.
In a raid two weeks ago, Italian police seized 2.8 tons of hashish and a million pills of Captagon in a clothes shipment in the port of Salerno.
Captagon was used in the 1960s to treat compulsive sleep and depression, and it is one of the brand names for phenethylene hydrochloride, a drug that belongs to the family of amphetamines that can prevent fear and reduce fatigue.
Captagon has become popular in the Middle East, especially in war-torn areas such as Syria.
Journalists' doubts
The news of the seizure of the huge shipment on Wednesday sparked a debate between researchers and activists on social media platforms, where many questioned the Italian police account and press coverage, pointing fingers at the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
"This story is totally unconnected," researcher Charles Lester said on Twitter. "The state can never have the capacity to produce drugs for these quantities. This is beyond comprehension."
He added that "the Assad control areas were a big factory for the Captagon and for export to the region, and there were a lot of seizures at last."
"The production of Captagon in Syria is abundant, but ISIS does not manufacture it in quantities and exports it to Europe, even though the organization has consumed it in the past. It is possible that this statement is from the imagination of Italians. Good newspapers should demand more evidence of these allegations," said Emma Bills. .
Assad, Hezbollah, and Haftar
For his part, journalist Sam Dagher tweeted, "The Italian police say they confiscated about $ 1 billion from Captagon made by ISIS. The media everywhere repeats what the police said. I never mention the fact that criminals and businessmen associated with Assad and his Lebanese allies have been providing these pills for a long time. ".
It is reported that suspicions are hovering around those close to the Assad regime regarding drug production and smuggling activities in Syria and Lebanon.
In May, the Minister of the Interior in the internationally recognized Libyan government accused the Assad regime of smuggling drugs through Syria to several countries, including Libya, through the ports of the eastern region controlled by retired Major General Khalifa Haftar.
The Minister indicated that the authorities in Port Said, Egypt, seized 4 tons of hashish on April 12 last, on board a ship coming from Syria and heading to the port of Benghazi.